Road Rage - Understanding, Avoidance and De-escalating Situation

This is a discussion on Road Rage - Understanding, Avoidance and De-escalating Situation within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; Originally Posted by pkulkarni.2106
Pune is seeing increasing number of incidents like these. A year ago, same thing happened to ...

Re: Techie stabbed in Pune because he objected to someone driving on the wrong side

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Originally Posted by pkulkarni.2106

Pune is seeing increasing number of incidents like these. A year ago, same thing happened to a colleague of mine, when he wanted to enter the office gate some local goon brushed his car. When he tried to confront the guy, they started beating him and moreover the security guards did not intervene to help him.

5 local goons in a brand new unregistered Swift Dzire reversed in to my Nano at 12.30am just outside my society.I had no chance in spite of speaking local language since they were all drunk.I still tried to ask for some money from them politely, to which they said they have suffered more to their new car.

Today while crossing road, I was busy dodging bikes ( this was at zebra crossing and when signal was red for vehicles ), and I hear someone honking from wrong side! One moron was trying to enter that road from wrong side and was honking!

For wrong side drivers, I try to make their wrong side entry difficult deliberately, even delay them by some tactics but avoid confrontation.

Over the years, I have realised that being civilized is not always an option when involved in a road rage situation - either as a participant or as a peacemaker.

However, i have also internalised the lesson that living in an imperfect world riddled with lax rules, manipulative/manipulable police force and hawkish legal system, getting out of the situation with minimum loss of property and peace of mind should be our primary objective.

Does that make me a coward? So be it. I would rather live to tell the tale than die/suffer at the hands of an unruly mob or a drunk rowdy.

Being a father/husband is more important than being a matyred public hero or worse, a minor statistic in the unnatural deaths register of the local police station.

Re: Techie stabbed in Pune because he objected to someone driving on the wrong side

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Originally Posted by drmohitg

Lots of members on the forum and many others on Youtube etc. take pride in educating/confronting these morons on the roads.

If we leave aside this one incident where in the victim confronted, I can tell you of numerous instances where in the person from the wrong side of the road has beaten up the right person even when there was no confrontation. What do you do in such a case?

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Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

In our country, driving on the wrong side of the road is not explicitly called out as a violation/offence.

Driving on the wrong side might have a grey area but what about driving in the opposite direction of a designated one way? That IMHO, doesn't have any grey area but is a clear violation.

I am not saying we should confront this behaviour but I feel we mango people will get into the matter this way or that way. I have seen many instances where in people got into trouble without any fault of theirs or without even confronting. The only point I am trying to drive across is that just by avoiding confrontation, you might not necessarily be avoiding trouble for you. yes you can be contented that you did not start it, but .......

Also where does this end? With no confrontation lawlessness is only going to increase a lot more. Yes, we can always argue that this is the job of a cop or the lawmakers but we all know the fact of the matter that we are just trying to console ourselves by saying this.

The main problem I see here is that people dont react till it comes on to them directly. If in any such instance, there is a good amount of support from the people around, these goons will have to keep the tails between their legs and scoot for safety.

When I travel to the IT hub in Hinjewadi in Pune, I have always seen the local 6 -seaters (or the 8-10 seater tum tums) push through the crowd like its their fathers road. If one guy confronts, all others just look on without doing anything. At peak times, the IT crowd driving on these roads is immense and if just 10-15 people from them support the victim on a couple of occasions, these sissies would realize what is going on and would behave orderly but unfortunately what I speak of just an idealistic situation, not realistic. So makes sense to be a sissy ourselves and live than confront and get injured/harmed

Re: Techie stabbed in Pune because he objected to someone driving on the wrong side

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Originally Posted by centaur

I am not saying we should confront this behaviour but I feel we mango people will get into the matter this way or that way. I have seen many instances where in people got into trouble without any fault of theirs or without even confronting.

Reminds me of an incident on similar lines.

I had visited my parents who live in an upcoming suburb near Chandigarh. Last Sunday, a day before Holi, we went to a nearby temple and while coming back, got stuck in a deadlock on a 4-way crossing. There was no traffic light or a roundabout and long queues had formed in 2/4 ways. We entered from the perpendicular direction and mine was the first vehicle in my lane.

The deadlock culprit was a Fortuner fellow who had blocked the primary lane. Seeing no way out, a bunch of people got off and were managing the traffic. It took 4-5 people to convince the Fortuner fellow to reverse a little but just as the traffic moved, an Indica came from behind in my lane and blocked it again.

Now one of the guys managing the traffic was really pissed at this and gave him a piece of his mind. The Indica guy shouted back but kept pushing in the deadlock. Seeing this, a bunch of people came forward and pressurized the Indica to move back. Once the Indica guy was sure he has no way out for his vehicle, he parked it there, got off and started hitting the guy who was managing the traffic and had shouted at him initially

A scuffle broke out and blows were exchanged. The guy was managing the traffic for the benefit of everybody and anybody would be pissed at the way the Indica came from the wrong side of his lane, but then he ended up with a torn sweater and some blows :(

Re: Techie stabbed in Pune because he objected to someone driving on the wrong side

Quote:

Originally Posted by centaur

If we leave aside this one incident where in the victim confronted, I can tell you of numerous instances where in the person from the wrong side of the road has beaten up the right person even when there was no confrontation. What do you do in such a case?

Sorry you misunderstood me. I am not saying that one should follow the ahimsa approach and offer the other cheek in such instances. If the other person is being aggressive, you have a right to defend yourself the way you choose fit. For some it would be to stay in the car itself and call for help, some exchange blows, some use pepper sprays, some keep a baseball bat or hockey stick in their car and the list goes on. My point is that avoid confrontation till the time you can as it is not really helpful. Honestly I have been lucky enough to not get into an ugly incident yet. Whenever some other vehicle has nudged into mine, I just choose to continue to move on.

PUNE: A road rage incident snuffed the life of 18-year-old Ramavatar Banwarilal Jatav, when two drunk youths, riding a motorcycle, bludgeoned him to death and gouged out his eyes because Jatav had brushed against their bike while crossing the road, causing minor damage to the vehicle.

Thanks for the link, though I do not agree with a single word in it, it follows the same rhetoric as every other article. Where have we not heard these words before - "keep calm no matter what" "think from the point of view of the other person" and "take the high road". Now I hope my views are not misunderstood to be something they are not, I'm a realist by nature and go by what happens and not "what should happen".

Personally I've not gotten into road rage yet, the hope is to never do so, did I get out the car a couple of times? Sure, but they are due to reasons that I'll outline below :

- Not everyone has the same level of temper, each human being is different from others, based on their sum total of experiences. Each person has his/her threshold, some can be totally patient but will lose it badly depending on a circumstance while others can harness their anger to diffuse a situation, its a talent.

- Biology to the rescue > The brain is largely a duality, the prefrontal cortex which governs our thinking and action by calling into effect previous experiences, education (however flawed), and some scientific factualities like considering the harm of going into conflict, sizing up the situation etc. Then there is the reptilian cortex - the oldest, most reliable and always active part of the brain which is governed purely by instincts, its simply called "fight or flight".. it processes in milliseconds whether to run away as quickly as possible in an impossible-to-win situation or to take the opposing force head-on no matter the consequences. This is the link of our brain which directly goes back to the animalistic survival instincts that governs most species on earth. The sad part is both the pre-frontal and reptilian cortexes can make a mistake, since what the opposing individual does in response is a gamble.

A sign of weakness can become a signal for the aggressor to dominate even more, OR unnecessary aggression can make the aggressee respond in kind, who knows?

I've seen more than my fair share of unlawful, anti-social and boorish behavior on the road and have maintained my composure all through despite not being a patient individual by a long shot. Sometimes its essential to raise the voice and defend myself, to keep from being blamed without reason, I do that, and other times its essential to keep quiet and swallow the pride/anger in the interest of safety and sanity, I do that too.

Road rage will truly come to an end only when people understand themselves before understanding the road, its a fine balance of laws that need to be followed, consideration that needs to be given and apologies as well when due because all the humans are imperfect. The road was never meant to be a personal playground where one can turn as he/she pleases, go as fast or slow as he/she pleases and pretend that others are never inconvenienced due to one's actions, chances are they're always inconvenienced.

The ethos of people must change, a total 180 from what it is today. Stuff like "be free live free" and "the world is a family" have been buzzwords since forever, however they never took into account the true human nature, constructs of society and law. Sometimes the instigator of the road rage is more guilty than the person who responds to the instigation by illegal means, but the courts can never see that can they?

Cannot stress the importance of de-escalating and walking away, no matter what the provocation. The voiceover says the auto driver went at the biker with a knife and in retaliation the biker picked up a rock and hit him with it, injuring him fatally.

Now the biker is in jail, will probably be tried for murder and two lives are destroyed.

What happens when one of these bike vloggers instigate a car guy. The biker was definitely in the wrong. Car guy is definitely in the wrong for retaliating so badly. Luckily that guy's friend on the Enfield did not end up kissing the tarmac. Good thing it did not lead to another case like the New York road rage incident.

What happens when one of these bike vloggers instigate a car guy. The biker was definitely in the wrong. Car guy is definitely in the wrong for retaliating so badly. Luckily that guy's friend on the Enfield did not end up kissing the tarmac. Good thing it did not lead to another case like the New York road rage incident.

What happens when one of these bike vloggers instigate a car guy. The biker was definitely in the wrong. Car guy is definitely in the wrong for retaliating so badly. Luckily that guy's friend on the Enfield did not end up kissing the tarmac. Good thing it did not lead to another case like the New York road rage incident.

This is a new annoying trend of people trying to preach how to drive *wrong* by using Dashcam or GoPro videos. Earlier I had posted about a channel posting insane dashcam videos and now this one popped up my YouTube feed. I am not justifying what the car guy did either since thats just stupid to come into contact with another vehicle to settle his ego.

Both are fools IMO, and this foolishness is what has ruined driving in India. Both sides think they are god. But if I was the biker, I would have not confronted at the first place itself. When you have enough examples of road rage flying in the media, there is no point in trying to confront someone who is willing to bump into others. The car can do more damage to bikes than vice versa. Hence taking that logic to picture, this was not at all necessary. At least it didnt escalate further else this would have been dangerous.

There's another video by the same guy zipping at triple digit speeds within the city. Now that according to him is totally ok. Then he tries to overtake a car which doesn't give way due to ego issues and then a huge clash of ego takes place. The car guy yet again bumps into another bike and this hero chases it all the way and a longer story to follow. Again not blaming only one party, but why all the extra reactions? I come across rash drivers on a daily basis and cant go confront these people all day unless they have harmed me in any way. Best way is to de-escalate and not compete with someone by being equally rash. This will puncture anyone's ego and you dont have to raise your temper.

The reason for so much hungama in these so called Vlog channels is just to gain subscribers and clock numbers on the videos. They seem to live their life just to post on YouTube and gain popularity(money). Classical morons.

I have seen many of these biker groups occupying 1/2 lanes without letting other vehicles pass their cavalcade. Yes they drive safe, wear all the safety gear and all that but occupying so much space is surely not done IMHO. You can see this kind of driving all over the world actually. These gangs should respect other motorists on the road and ride in a very concise formation than spill over the entire road like a broken egg. Yes, surely have fun but don't spoil it for others.

Another videos, only much worse for the car driver for no fault of his/hers-